Augusta National Golf Club is equal parts Westminster Abbey, Wrigley Field and Yosemite National Park.

To be there is to be hushed by its otherworldly beauty, to feel the heartbeat of its golfing ghosts, to be dwarfed by Georgia pines and walls of azaleas.

“There is a certain amount of reverence and awe the first time you see it,” San Diego golfer Jim Saivar explained. “It’s like seeing the Colosseum in Rome. You get butterflies. You can’t believe you’re actually there.”

That’s just seeing it. Imagine playing it.

A member at Fairbanks Ranch Country Club, Saivar is among the lucky few in America who have.

There is no more desired single golf round in the world. Several years ago, Golf Digest asked readers if they would give up watching the Masters for 10 years if they could play Augusta. Seventy-nine percent said they would.

Golf.com asked golfers what they’d pay to play there. Thirteen percent said “Whatever it takes!” Another nine percent said at least $2,000. Ninety percent said they’d rather play Augusta than watch a Masters final round in person.

If you’re not a world-class golfer and can’t qualify for the Masters, it’s nearly impossible to get on during the six months each year that the ultra-exclusive and private Augusta is open. But it can be done. The steps are quite easy:

Know somebody. Know somebody. Know somebody.

Saivar’s wife, Lynn, had such connections and made it happen for him as a 50th birthday present.

USD golf coach Tim Mickelson’s brother is a three-time Masters champion, so he had a slight advantage.

San Diego native Seve Gonzales went to college at Yale, and those guys network with U.S. presidents.

And Pete Coe is the longtime head pro at La Jolla Country Club, where the members, not surprisingly, have some influential friends. Coe’s was the achievement of a double dream at Augusta, because he got to play with his son, Bucky.

To play Augusta is to remember every shot and cherish every moment.

Brotherly love

Tim Mickelson laughed when he recalled his first and only time playing Augusta National in March of 2006 — a month before his brother, Phil, won his second green jacket.

“The quirky part of my story,” Mickelson said, “is that I have four or five different caddies trying to help me.”

Tim Mickelson aspired to be a professional at one time, and he remains one of the best mid-amateur players in the country. Last summer, he came within three match-play victories in the U.S. Mid-Amateur of winning and earning a playing spot in the Masters.

In ’06, Tim went to Augusta to play with his brother, their father, Phil Sr., and an Augusta member. Phil’s caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, also was along on a scouting trip, and everybody in the group wanted Tim to break par in his first time around from the tournament tees.

“I’d have a putt and four different people were trying to read it for me,” Tim said. “It was more pressure than playing a typical round at a nice club.”

Tim said that while the greens were slower and the fringe slightly higher than it is during Masters week, his biggest fear was misreading a putt so badly he’d roll it off the green. Phil didn’t let that happen, but there were a few times when Tim eyed a 4-foot break and it was actually 15 feet.

“(Phil) has so much experience and knowledge there. I know he enjoyed showing me those putts,” Tim said.

A good score was in jeopardy for Tim at the par-5 13th. He drove into the right trees — just as Phil did on Sunday in his win last year — and went for the green. But Tim’s ball ended up in Rae’s Creek, and after a chunked third shot and an unplayable lie, Tim was hitting five.

No problem. Showing the Mickelson short-game flair, Tim chipped in from 40 yards to make par. It would be a critical save in achieving his goal. He shot 1-under-par 71.

“It was such a great experience,” Tim said. “I know it was particularly special for my dad. … It left me wanting to win the Mid-Am that much more.”

A tree falls at Augusta

Pete and Bucky Coe were invited in 2006 to play Augusta by a guest who visited La Jolla Country Club. Bucky was playing for Tim Mickelson at USD, and father and son flew to Atlanta and drove to Augusta to play with the member.

They were thoroughly enjoying themselves as they began their trip to Amen Corner by walking down the 11th fairway. Bucky put his arm around his dad and said, “Is this the best day of your life?” Then they heard a loud crack, the ground shook, and they turned to see an enormous pine tree fall across the width of the fairway only yards behind them.

Struck dead on Augusta? It could have happened.

“We were there 30 seconds earlier,” Pete Coe recalled. “We were in shock.”

Just as stunning was the view off the 11th fairway when they came back to the 17th green two hours later. The tree was gone, the sod was fixed and there was no evidence a tree had ever fallen.

That’s Augusta — golf’s Disneyland.

Bucky shot 75, with a birdie on 18, and Pete scored 81.

“It’s funny,” Pete Coe, 64, said. “Even though you’ve never played there before, you feel like you know the golf course very well because you’ve watched it for so many years.”

Pete returned to watch the Masters for several years and said he appreciates the course more now.

“Oh my gosh, yes,” he said. “There’s just a feeling you get there that you don’t get anywhere else. It’s the nostalgia and the history. You know how exclusive it is. I counted my blessings all day long, and to be able to play with my son … how many fathers and sons get to do that?”

Old college try

There were many good reasons Grossmont High grad Seve Gonzales went to Yale. Getting on Augusta National turned out to be a wonderful perk.

In 2009, the Yale men’s golf team learned that an Augusta member and Yale grad wanted them to come and play. On the team were three San Diegans: Gonzales, Ben Wescoe and Taylor Hakes.

So excited were the boys that they studied up on Augusta’s history and learned that the Masters theme we hear on television each year actually has lyrics. Gonzales, who is musically inclined, sings the first verse over the phone:

Well, it’s springtime in the valley on Magnolia Lane;

It’s the Augusta National and the master of the game;

Who’ll wear that green coat on Sunday afternoon?

Who’ll walk that 18th fairway, singing this tune?

As the Yale caravan drove up Magnolia Lane in ’09, the boys popped in their CD and belted out the song. One can get chills just thinking about it.

“It was a pretty cool moment,” Gonzales said.

“Obviously, it’s the pinnacle of golf. It’s every kid’s dream,” he added. “You can imagine how excited we were — 10 college kids who had been playing golf their whole life.”

Gonzales and Wescoe played a match against their coach, Colin Sheehan, and a member. They got smoked, with the young duo losing by the time they reached Augusta’s famous par-3 12th.

“Everywhere we went, Coach talked about our match at Augusta, and how we shook hands on the 12th hole — which they call Golden Bell,” Gonzales recalled with a laugh. “He loved saying ‘Golden Bell.’ ”

The team had lunch in the clubhouse and visited the champions’ locker room. They took hundreds of pictures with their cell phones. They didn’t know that they’d return only a year later to play again.

“I was only 20 years old the first time I played it,” Gonzales marveled. “How many people can say that? I’d never worked a day in my life. To be able to go to a place so hallowed, I felt like I’d lived a full life.”

The gift

As his 50th birthday neared in 1995, Jim Saivar read a newspaper story about a man getting to play Augusta as a birthday present from his wife. Saivar joked to his wife, Lynn, “If you really loved me, you’d get me on Augusta.”

Apparently, Lynn Saivar is a doer, not a dreamer. Through a convoluted trail of friends, Lynn got through to an Augusta member who agreed to host Jim. He played Augusta the Friday before the 1996 Masters — the memorable tournament won by Nick Faldo after a colossal collapse by Greg Norman.

When Jim and Lynn arrived at Augusta National’s Magnolia Lane gate, she had to drop him off because they wouldn’t let her drive in. Someone came to deliver Jim to the clubhouse, and he was humbled with his first look at Augusta’s pristine expanse.

“You can’t believe that you’re actually going to get to play there,” he said.

On the first tee, Saivar said he was as nervous as he’d ever been in his life. He had a 5-foot par putt on the treacherous second green and the ball trickled past the pin and rolled 40 feet away. At the third, he had a 30-yard sand wedge shot, chunked it into the green’s false front, and the ball rolled back to his feet.

The round got better. Saivar made his first par at the par-5 eighth and shot 39 on the back to record a respectable 85.

Saivar, 65, who played in the U.S. Mid-Am last summer, was so enamored of Augusta that he traveled to watch the Masters for the next 10 years. He and his son were just a few yards from Tiger Woods when he made his incredible chip-in at the 16th hole en route to his Masters victory in 2005.

“It was one of the real special moments,” Saivar said.

It was the birthday gift that kept on giving. How do you repay your wife for that one?